Lair of the Shadow Broker Reloaded
by Thenewguyintheblock
Summary: See the rise to power of one woman who will change the course of the entire galaxy in her wake.


THE NEW SUCCESSOR

Shepard was tired. She was badly beaten. Her armor was cracked open from several places. Her vision was getting blurry. The damn Yahg was one tough son of a bitch. But still he couldn't stand against the might of the first human spectre.

Shepard tried to stood but fell again, her kneecap was broken, the N7 suit administrated the remaining medi-gel mending her flesh and fixing the broken bones. She gathered her courage and stood up muffling her screams due to the pain coursing through her body. Using her sniper rifle as a cane she dragged her badly bruised body to the control panel.

The control panel was also in a bad shape, barely working and accepting only basic commands. Good thing she took an Engineering degree in the academy. Connecting her Omni-tool and matching its frequency and resonating it with that of the panel, she opened a new broadcast window, furiously typing in digits and symbols, she bypassed the RE256 bit failsafe firewall. Next she made a ghost copy of the chipboard of the panel, running it into a virtual environment, she rebooted it. The Shadow network was now online. Connecting her Omni tool to the back of her helmet she projected it in the 3D environment with the help of induced photon solid plasma projector. And voila a full working virtual control panel. Even with a lag of 3.2 seconds it was acceptable. She took a deep breath but flinched when her lungs burned.

Shepard looked around, the place was a mess. She and the Yahg had a pleasant conversation before things were gone south. He appreciated her intellect and wanted to study her brain, find out its working and finally make an electrostatic 3D matrix copy of it.

She told him that she was flattered but she had to refuse because without a stable magnetic field of 5.79 terahertz the 3D matrix would break apart because unstable matrix had a half-life of 3.2 microsecond.

The Yahg didn't agree, before she could continue her physics lecture a three fingered _heavily armored _fist connected to her face. Good thing she wore helmet. The Yahg punched _hard. _Soon the compound of the ship started to broke apart because using heavy weapons and grenade launcher inside spaceships tend to do that. When the weapons became useless '_how much armor was on that thing' _the firefight soon turned into a fistfight. A fistfight between a heavily armored genetically enhanced steroids taking super krogan and a redhead human female in that time of her month. Finally things ended when Shepard was able to get a hold of the Cain, her Babyboy. After three successive point blank ranged shots she was the only breathing organism in that room.

Shepard massaged her sore throat '_Damn that thing squeezed hard'. _She opened a comm channel to all the sub-roots. A red voice box appeared in the air, she changed the voice frequency and pitch to match that of the Yahg.

_"This is the Shadow broker."_

_"We were attacked but the situation is under control."_

_"In the light of the new security breach we are reviewing all protocols."_

_"Resume standard procedure."_

_"I want a status report on all operations within the next solar day."_

_"Shadow broker out."_

After that was done she wanted nothing more than to just pass out then and there but a noise drew her attention _'footsteps'_. She gripped her left hand and switched the Omni tool to a functional Omni whip, her own little tweak. Well the Omni shield was shattered thanks to the dead thing in the left corner. The dented door somehow opened and there was a blue thing standing there, behind her there was a green blur peeking from a side, there was something in both of their hands.

Shepard narrowed her eyes, trying to focus _'Damn third grade implants'. _Finally the blue thing spoke.

"S-Sh-Shepard!"

"The one and only." said the hoarse voice of Shepard.

"Y-you are, you are alive!"

"Just barely." There was something familiar about the blue thing and the voice but what?

"..."

"..."

"What are you doing here?!"

"Standing." _'Just barely'_

Before she could react the blue object moved in a gravity defying speed and she was slammed by it. Shepard heard her ribs cracking under the bear hug.

"I missed you so much! When you were declared rogue I was so worried! Everyone was out for your blood and the Shadow broker was giving them your info! I-I came here to stop him but it looked like you did it yourself!" Liara babbled still gripping Shepard in a bear hug.

Finally Shepard understood what the unidentified blue object was.

"Liara -can't- breathe." Shepard said maybe her final words to her lover but her darkening vision returned to normal when she was dropped on the floor again.

"Oh! I-I apologize! I didn't meant to hurt you, here take some medi-gel."

Now that was the first good thing that happened to her that day.

"What happened here?" Liara spoke taking in the condition of the room.

Shepard looked at her like that she was Wrex and he has asked her to marry him.

Liara looked down embarrassingly, it was like she was fifty again and was being scolded by her mother for asking a stupid question. She loved Shepard with all her three hearts but she also envied her for her intellect. It took her sixty years to get master degrees in quantum mathematics, hemo-genetc engineering, prothean culture and science, dimensional theory and dark matter physics, AI psychology and brain mapping. It took Shepard sixty minutes to surpass her in those fields by just joining minds with her. The next day Shepard's new work published in Salarian today. New breakthroughs in prothean culture, sixty new theories in dark matter physics, twenty unsolvable quantum equations solved and proved, five new dextrose-enzymes identified and cataloged, design of new and improved AI dampers. It was just not fair but that was also the reason she loved her.

"Is that the shadow broker" The green thing or the Drell asked.

"Who the fuck are you?"

"I-uh-I worked for him before."

"What!" Liara looked at him sharply, her biotic flaring.

"Good now you work for me."

"What!" This time Liara looked at Shepard he biotic died down.

_'Sigh' _"Liara I came here to kill him and I just did, then I took control of his network."

"But, Why?"

"There is no single solution to your question Liara, why is an ambiguous term. The answers always changes according to the focus of the motive."

"What was your motive then?" Liara asked softly.

"Well to put it simply Power. To specify it more clearly, I always had a knack for information, it is like drugs to me. To control the flow of it, it would be like a dream job. The interview for the job which I just passed." She said this and thumbed towards the dead body in the corner.

"But the Shadow broker was evil!"

Shepard turned away and walked some steps towards the virtual panel. Liara watching her from the spot. The virtual panel disappeared and was replaced by a galaxy map with Shepard in the middle. She plucked a star from the map and blew it. It was like magic dust. Beautiful.

"There is neither good nor evil in this world, there is only power and those too weak to seek it."

Everyone was silent even the Drell was looking at both of them from the corner of his eye.

The silent staring match was over when Liara opened her mouth.

"Do you really believe that, you survived Mindoir! You were the hero of Elysium! You stopped Saran! By the goddess you even stopped Sovereign! So tell me why do you say there is no good or there is no evil! The reapers are evil! The collectors are evil because they are trying to destroy the Galaxy!" by the end Liara was shouting, the Drell slowly took a step back.

Shepard said nothing just looked at her blue counterpart, weighting her, evaluating her. She loved a good debate where she could run her mind for miles sitting in a comfy chair after an eventful day, but not after a particularly painful death match with a super krogan. Her green eyes wandered to the gun holster of the Asari. She closed her eyes visualizing.

At this distance chances of subduing the Asari vs killing the Asari 75-25%

_'Distract attention: Throw gun in the air_

_Close distance: Favor the undamaged left leg, try to cover distance in one solid dash._

_Time limit: Three seconds._

_Disable Primary weapon: Remove the gun from holster._

_Create more time for second attack: Disorient with jabs to both the ear cavities vs one punch to the mid-section._

_Disable Secondary weapon: Disable biotic by electrocution._

_Finish the Threat: Snap the Neck. (Chances of survival 75%)_

Shepard opened her eyes. Liara was in battle ready stance. She knew too well how Shepard thought and what she was thinking now. There was no love in those green eyes. It was like somehow a reaper was given a human body, calculating, vast and unfathomable. Even Sovereign praised Shepard and promised her a reaper body after all this _"You are not beyond Redemption, human"_. Now Sovereign was trash and Shepard was standing in front of her.

Shepard sighed. She loved her too much to kill her now. But Liara was too naive. She liked that quality in her but it was annoying sometimes. She drew a deep breath and said in the sweetest tone possible.

"Liara."

The storm was settling down on the planet and the Broker's ship was in the air drawing electricity stored in the large capacitors.

The blue and green figures were alive and breathing and helping in cleaning the wreckage. The final figure in the armor with red hair was in front of a control panel typing something. A blue orb assisting her.

Shepard smirked, this was too easy. A beeping noise drew her attention. A new window opened in front of her with the face of the Salarian Dalatrass. Well time to work.

_"This is the Shadow broker."_

_. _


End file.
